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The Prevalence of Eating Disorders in Young Athletes
Disordered eating is defined as potentially harmful and disruptive eating behaviours. This can include behaviors such as abnormal dieting, increased attention to food intake, and weight watching. Disordered eating can sometimes, not always, develop into Eating Disorders (ED) (Mancine et al., 2020). This is a subgroup of diagnosable psychiatric disorders […]
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Watching, Fast and Slow
Baseball and football are different in many ways. They represent different cultures, different lifestyles, customs, and traditions. The mere presence of a timeclock, or lack thereof, defines separate ways of life. Football is fast, and baseball is slow. Baseball fans and football fans also are different. A while back, a […]
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Why I Love Coaching
I am a coach. I have been coaching for a very long time, since I was a young teenager. It is something that I love to do. I love being on the field, pitch, deck, court, and almost anywhere else a coach can be. I get excited about helping athletes […]
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Sports Culture: It’s An Education, Not Only Entertainment
Sometimes, culture and sportsmanship don’t manifest themselves in competition, they are embodied more so in practice and helping the athletes. Zack McBride, the Head Cross Country Coach and Assistant Track and Field Coach at Limestone University weighed in on the topic. “My best moment as an athlete isn’t just one […]
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The New Landscape of College Football: The Impact of NIL Laws
Over the past few years we have seen a drastic change in the fabric of college football. This is partially in thanks to the addition of the NCAA Transfer Portal, which was instituted on October 15th, 2018. Since the Transfer Portal took effect we have seen a massive increase in […]
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Compassion vs Judgement
We need to cultivate a culture that judges (evaluates) process, not people. The Reality Whether in a corporate or athletic setting, we do not explicitly discuss what we should or want to judge. We also do not explicitly discuss what we need to be compassionate about. So many of my […]
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The Future of Baseball
I am obsessed with baseball, and this is my favorite time of the year. In the middle of the MLB postseason, my favorite team is in the thick of things. All of the series have been exciting, with several stars taking center stage. One of those stars has taken the […]
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Out of Sight, In the Mind – Catching Brain Damage Early
The contact heavy aspect of football has attracted many fans over the years due to the nature of the game; hit hard, hit fast. With movies like Concussion, directed by Peter Landesman, an emphasis is placed on all of the effects of this “Hit Hard Hit Fast,” gameplay. What do […]
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Wrestling and Pole Vaulting: Different Sports, Similar Cultures
To many people, culture means different things. For a lucky few athletes, we experience multiple sport cultures. Irwin Brambley, a beloved friend of mine and a decorated All-American wrestler, is one of those athletes. I was fortunate enough to get a brief interview with him. “What is sportsmanship? we learn […]
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Coaches Learning from Their Actions
The Los Angeles Rams were trying to offload their quarterback, Jared Goff, earlier this year. And when the opportunity arose, they made a trade. The trade looked like a great opportunity for both organizations and both teams seemed to be good fits for the newly traded quarterbacks. Even Matthew Stafford, […]
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Agree to Disagree? Why Embracing Disagreements Improves Culture
Recently, I read an article from the Harvard Business Review on why disagreements were so vital for a thriving culture. It really made me stop and think about my experience working with teams. At what point do we actually ever discuss disagreeing in a positive manner? I’ve seen plenty of […]
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One Thing That a Coach Can Work on Today
As a coach, I always had about 100 tasks, ideas, things that I needed to work on, or discussions that I wanted to have every day. I wanted each practice to be the best for our athletes and team. I wanted each assistant coach to learn something and become better […]
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Breaking up the Club
Two off-the-field stories have dominated the headlines in the NFL this week. Both involve grossly inappropriate conduct by head coaches, although neither is surprising except that we heard about them. The “clubby culture” in the NFL may be beginning to break down. Finally. First, a short cell phone video of […]
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Pole Vaulting: A Culture of True Sportsmanship
When one thinks of Culture In Sports, Track & Field (specifically the Pole Vault) embodies the mentality that any athlete should aspire to be a leader and to work hard. When I was eleven years old, I made the decision to be a diverse athlete. Well, that did not work; […]
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The Physical Gap Between Our Best Intentions and Reality: The NWSL Crisis
“If we go along with you and lie our asses off, the world of truth and ideals is, er, protected.” That’s a line from an old (if you think the 1970s is old) movie about NASA faking a Mars landing in order to avoid embarrassment and maintain its meaningful work […]
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Pressure Makes Diamonds
As our cultural shift has led sports teams from a centralized leadership role to one that expects each player to have those capabilities, the ongoing need for athletes to be more self-sustaining has dramatically increased. There will always be some sort of authoritative figure within the team, only now their […]
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Competence: It’s more than just doing the job
In a recent article by the Harvard Business Review (2020), 40% of recent graduates did not feel “job ready” and potential applicants would not even consider applying for entry level positions. They cited a lack of skills as one of the top reasons. It got me thinking about we cultivate […]
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A Culture of Silence
Here we go again. Again. Last week, detailed sexual harassment allegations spanning over the past decade against women’s professional soccer coach Paul Riley surfaced in The Athletic. Two former players who claimed to be harassed by Riley, Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim, and US Women’s National Team star Alex Morgan […]
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When Ws Don’t Mean Winning
Do you remember when you first realized the former name of the Washington Football Team was racist? Maybe it was a gradual shift in thinking or perhaps it hit like a thunder bolt. Either way, once you saw it, you couldn’t unsee it. Such a realization was the result of […]
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A Learning Organization
Culture in Sports is a learning organization. Our goal is to learn everything possible, whether it is about culture, leadership, or anything else that can help athletes, coaches, support staff, teams, and organizations. Being a learning organization is the cornerstone of anything that we are trying to do. Is your […]
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Feedback: How to optimize learning and confidence
Carol Dweck is acclaimed for her work on Growth Mindset. It has provided material for educators and coaches for years. However, there is one area of research that I want to bring back into focus today, that has a direct impact on effort, focus, and confidence for athletes. How we […]
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Strength Through Purpose
A year ago, talk show host Skip Bayliss criticized Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott after admitting he was suffering from anxiety and depression after his brother’s suicide. His admission was called a sign of weakness, and it would impact his ability to lead. Bayliss apologized, but his reaction reflects what […]
